12/7/2023 0 Comments North sentinel island coronavirus![]() She began collaborating with Christian Happi at Redeemer’s University in Ede, Nigeria, who also directs the African Centre of Excellence for Genomics of Infectious Diseases. Her lab could not do large-scale genomic analysis, so the researchers sent SARS-CoV-2 isolates to a sequencing center in western Nigeria. When COVID-19 emerged, “we swung into action,” she says. Although Nigeria is polio-free, now and then variants rear their ugly heads. In separate labs at University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital, work is done on HIV and polio. Using BSL-2 facilities, she and her team work on infectious diseases such as yellow fever, West Nile, dengue, chikungunya and Zika viruses. In her World Health Organization (WHO)-accredited and WHO-sponsored lab, she had supplies, equipment and personnel, know-how for viral RNA extraction, and ability to perform quantitative RT-PCR. In 2020, many labs in Nigeria were unfit, but, she says, now more than 50 labs across the country are well equipped to handle COVID-19 and other infectious diseases. “Even if I was to be killed, I don’t mind.” The issues she flagged were corrected and she eventually certified the lab. She was asked certify one where even the most basic biosafety was lacking. Even at her university’s teaching hospital, “those things were not there.” When COVID-19 struck Nigeria, the government asked her to optimize labs for testing, and some were opened that were not up to the task. In Nigeria, across research facilities and hospital labs, equipment and know-how to test COVID-19 samples was lacking, says virologist Marycelin Baba, from the University of Maiduguri in Maiduguri, northeastern Nigeria. To get kits, reagents and consumables for RT-PCR and sequencing, he and his colleagues tapped into their collaborative networks, he says. In Kampala, Uganda, Thomas Egwang, director general of Med Biotech Laboratories, has tried to source diagnostic kits, but contacting companies led to runarounds. In January 2020, with the SARS-CoV-2 genome sequence in hand, they could quickly begin testing and surveillance. When the government asked for advice and support, he says, they had “family-level” coronavirus PCR assays ready. ![]() ![]() Duong has spent two decades studying bat coronaviruses and mosquito-borne arboviruses. Supply chain issues have gotten better, says Veasna Duong, who heads the virology unit at the institute, where they use BSL-2 and 3 facilities for avian flu, tuberculosis and zoonotic disease research. The scientists searched unsuccessfully for options, says Karlsson, then chartered a plane to move supplies from Singapore to Cambodia. Ethanol was needed for RNA extraction, but as a ‘dangerous good’ - it’s flammable - it must be packaged and transported in certain ways. When flights and shipping were scaled back, transportation costs soared and options grew slim. The country’s heat and humidity meant that stockpiled personal protective equipment was sometimes too brittle to use safely for scaled-up work with SARS-CoV-2. Others in Cambodia turned to them for expertise and help to set up COVID-19 testing centers and surveillance systems and to act as a referral lab for developing and validating new assays. Watch the video to know more interesting facts.“Supply chain has been a major problem for most countries,” says virologist Erik Karlsson from the Institut Pasteur du Cambodge in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, who works on respiratory viruses such as avian flu and SARS-CoV-2. As for now, it seems that the tribe is better off without anyone’s interference. It’s hard to say if contact with this mysterious tribe will ever be made again. They concluded that the tribe is healthy and thriving without any intervention of modern civilization. However, soon after this expedition, officials decided to stop all other missions. For the first time, islanders greeted visitors without bows. Pandit who arrived at the island bearing coconuts and other gifts in hopes to win the tribe’s trust. The first and probably the only friendly contact was established in 1967 by scholar T.N. The Indian government was eager to make contact with the Sentinelese people. The Sentinelese are not immune to modern diseases, so contact with outsiders could tragically wipe out the whole tribe. However, visiting this place may be dangerous not just for curious travelers. This tribe resists all contact with outsiders and aggressively attacks anyone who dares to come near the Sentinel Island. North Sentinel Island, one of the Andaman Islands in the Indian Ocean, is forbidden to visit because it is inhabited by a hostile Sentinelese tribe.
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